Counting on Bradley

The Padres are counting on outfielder Milton Bradley to help them win a third consecutive National League West title. General Manager Kevin Towers said he expects Bradley to rejoin the lineup for the team's next game, which, if it doesn't get rained out, will be tonight in Shea Stadium.

When he's healthy, Bradley might be the best player on the Padres. But he had an oblique strain when the Padres acquired him from Oakland, and on Aug. 2, he suffered a hamstring strain. As a result, Bradley has missed 25 of 46 starts since the Padres got him from the Athletics for Triple-A reliever Andrew Brown.

Bradley returned to the lineup on Aug. 3, but he aggravated the injury while attempting to run out a groundball, and since the game on Aug. 3, he hasn't made a start.

Bradley, a good defender in left field, has peformed with a lot of energy, whether coming off the bench or starting. As a hitter, he hasn't appeared rusty even after sitting out. Coming off the oblique injury, he immediately contributed to a win over the Braves. While nursing the hamstring strain, he had an excellent at-bat against Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen, working him for an eight-pitch walk on Aug. 8 in St. Louis.

"Fortunately I'm pretty good at understanding what a pitcher wants to do to me," Bradley said. "And I'm quick enough with my hands to react to the ball in and to go the other way."

Bradley talked of bringing a positive point of view to the entire offense. He said last week that he senses that his fellow Padres hitters have been pressing at times and that maybe when they don't get the results they want, they assign too much blame to themselves. "Sometimes, you've got to give the pitcher credit for throwing well," he said.

Bradley said it will be the lineup as a whole, not one person, that will make it happen for the Padres, who enter the final 39 games trailing first-place Arizona by three-and-a-half games. "You want that balance one through nine," he said, adding that not every hitter will be hot at the same time, "so we have to find other ways to get on base and move runners."

What does Bradley expect to contribute to the offense? "I think I give a consistent at-bat every time I get up and there, and I don't give anything away," he said.

For CEO Sandy Alderson, who has publicly complained about the team's hitting approach, those are welcomed words. But even more welcomed would be a healthy Bradley. The past few weeks have been challenging for Bradley but also Manager Bud Black. The Padres appeared to gamble and lose when they allowed Bradley to pinch-hit on Aug. 8. Just two days later, Black said Bradley was close to returning to the lineup -- but it didn't happen, apparently because Bradley suffered what Black termed a minor setback after performing agility drills to determine if he was ready.

In retrospect, Bradley and the Padres may have been better off using the disabled list after the setback on Aug. 3. For the most part, Bradley hasn't been available to start or even bat as a pinch-hitter since that injury. The uncertainty reduced Black's options, no small thing for a team whose depth already was suspect.

Posted by Tom Krasovic at August 21, 2007 09:52 AM
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